Event Question: Backstories

[Ogre]

I was wondering how important backstories are to a Scenario or Milsim game. This question came when I was trying to write a scenario for the next game I am planning on hosting Operation Lioness, which I am setting in Angola. I found myself simply discouraged while doing research on the Angolan Civilwar, political climate, and then writing my own fiction around it because at many events I have attended and hosted, it seems like the majority of the players (at least at the ones I host) don't even take the time to read it, or they do and they don't care, then come game day, they have absolutely no idea why they are completely the objectives they are supposed to be completing other than the Tan/Green leader told them to. Then the immersion in the scenario suffers due to it and the game feels only just a force on force game. I don't know, maybe it is just me who feels like this. Maybe they just fall flat because I don't have years of experience hosting.

What are your opinions on complex backstories. Are they important to gameplay or are they something that can be ignored/left out at will. I enjoy creating my own realistic fiction and I like spending a TON of time researching and going the extra length to make things such as eye catching trailers but why even bother if no one seems to care about them.

This year is probably the last year I will be hosting for awhile so I want to do things right where I messed up in previous ops. That includes, among many other things, trying to get people as interested in the scenario as I am.

[Knief]

For me, when I see a game post with 1500 words of back story, I'm not going to read it. It doesn't change how I play the game, it's usually fictional either throughout the entirety or at the point where it begins mattering to the gameplay. And a lot of times, it doesn't actually match what's happening on the field. You see stories that involve a battle between the US and some eastern bloc country, and then the camo restrictions put Woodland MARPAT on one team and Arid MARPAT on the other. Why would Asshatistan to be using a US pattern whist fighting against the US? I know you have to split teams and green vs. tan works, but write your scenario around that.

There's nothing wrong with giving your players some background information to set the stage, but keep it brief and relevant. When you're running an event, you can't focus too much on what you want to do because you'll lose focus on the more important thing: what your attendees want to do. I don't want to read a novel, I want to play an airsoft game.

[Ogre]

Jan 11, 2014 18:38:53 GMT -5 Knief said:

For me, when I see a game post with 1500 words of back story, I'm not going to read it. It doesn't change how I play the game, it's usually fictional either throughout the entirety or at the point where it begins mattering to the gameplay. And a lot of times, it doesn't actually match what's happening on the field. You see stories that involve a battle between the US and some eastern bloc country, and then the camo restrictions put Woodland MARPAT on one team and Arid MARPAT on the other. Why would Asshatistan to be using a US pattern whist fighting against the US? I know you have to split teams and green vs. tan works, but write your scenario around that.

There's nothing wrong with giving your players some background information to set the stage, but keep it brief and relevant. When you're running an event, you can't focus too much on what you want to do because you'll lose focus on the more important thing: what your attendees want to do. I don't want to read a novel, I want to play an airsoft game.

Thanks, that makes enough sense. The important thing, like you said, is for people enjoy the game. Thanks for the input on it. I wasn't sure if I was placing too much importance on it or not, and I was.

[Gimpalong]

The story line might add some drama to the event advertising page, but it rarely seems that the story line is carried onto the field beyond the basic configurations of the teams (e.g. terrorists versus SWAT, drug gang versus FBI, US forces versus Russian forces). Some of the objectives usually fit the scenario. For example, if it's a post-apocalyptic scenario each side might be looking to recover oil drums, or find some sort of plague antidote. But a lot of the time these are basically the same "find this thing," "attack/defend this place," type objectives just named something different from game to game.

I'd much rather see all of the time and energy spent coming up with a crazy back-story put into creating interesting objectives, cool props or generally making the game-play better.

I never remember the storylines of the games I've attended, but I do remember the cool buildings on the field, the neat props, the vehicles and the unique objectives.

[Cats (Doom)]

Jan 11, 2014 19:18:48 GMT -5 Gimpalong said:

I'd much rather see all of the time and energy spent coming up with a crazy back-story put into creating interesting objectives, cool props or generally making the game-play better.

Basically what Gimp said.

Having a fun, safe, game will effect the majority of players at your game. Adding a back-story will only enhance the experience for the players that actually read it; that is assuming they actually like the story after reading it AND have fun at the game. By that logic, fun game-play and objectives will always do way more for your game than having an interesting back-story.

[Mosin]

Spend a paragraph, maybe two on backstory prior to game day. When players are on field present storyline as it unfolds via direct mission briefings to commanders or prior to the start of the second game, third game, and so on. Realistically you should only expect to get about two or three scenarios in a day's worth of airsoft, but plan for a third and a fourth so you're not caught with your pants down and end up turning it into a game of team deathmatch.


Having consistency behind the scenes is what will either enhance a game significantly, or make it very confusing. Either outcome will be 100% from the players in attendance, whether or not they remember/write down names of key individuals, in addition to doing the same on towns, methods of marking, places and times to be somewhere, and so on is all on the player, but you need to have that information ready to present.

[Один (Odin)]

Actually if you were going to start a long running series of games a back story wouldn't be bad, but as in agreement with the others keep it rather short.
An example of where backstory adds to the gameplay is American Milsim and theirNew American Civil War storyline. A friend of mine went and said that it really helped immerse him on the game but they kept backstory rather short and uncomplicated